This invention relates to an improved compensating roll for expanding and contracting flexible materials. Such rolls are used for stretching or contracting webs crosswise of their length and also for removing wrinkles from webs traveling over them.
Compensating rolls of the type to which the invention relates are curved rolls and have a surface of steel or aluminum segments, generally called spool assemblies, which are rotatably mounted on a curved axle. The opposite ends of the curved axle are clamped and are adjustable so that the curved axis of the axle may be set in any desired plane about a straight axis common to both end clamps.
These compensating rolls and the manner of adjustably supporting them such that the curved axis of the axles thereof can be set in any desired plane generally function satisfactorily in stretching or contracting webs crosswise of their length and in removing wrinkles from the webs traveling over them. In many cases, however, it is found that the opposite lateral edges of the web are wrinkled since the webs are not properly expanded or contracted along its edges. These wrinkled edges, therefore, must be severed or otherwise removed. Doing so obviously can create a substantial amount of waste.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved compensating roll having end sections which are adjustable whereby more accurate adjustment of the expanding or contracting of the web along the opposite lateral edges thereof can be accomplished so as to virtually eliminate wrinkling of these opposite lateral edges.
The above, as well as other objects and features of the invention, will become apparent from the description below when considered in conjunction with the drawings.